Bill Rastetter Interprets Scenery in a Creative Fashion

•
2 years ago

10

Jun
2017

by LINDA FRABL | photo by Marisa Rastetter Photography

Appreciation for the Arts

Rancho Santa Fe resident Bill Rastetter captures memories of far-flung locales in a unique way. Growing up with a father who served in the Navy allowed Bill to experience living in the Bay Area, Boston, Washington, D.C., and even parts of Latin America. Bill naturally developed a fondness for different environments. Combine that with a love of oil paintings gleaned from his art-minded mother, and Bill now thrives on interpreting scenery in a creative fashion.

Bill explained, “My mom’s talent at oil painting provided me with an appreciation for the arts. Because I lack any talent with a paintbrush, though, I picked up the camera instead. My mom gave me a Kodak box camera when I was 11 years old, and by the age of 15, I was working part-time for the U.S. Information Agency as a darkroom photographer.”

Now Bill is an artistic photographer who incorporates the look of paintings into his photos. He elaborated, “I am drawn to doing photographs that appear to have been created with paint and brush rather than with film and camera. I’ve achieved this several ways: with time exposures of moving ocean and clouds, photographing and overlaying images of street art, and using a pinhole camera.”

The most recent exhibits of Bill’s photography were influenced by exotic locations. The exhibit “Graffiti Mash-Ups, Street Art Reinterpreted,” shown in 2015-2016 at the Madison Gallery in La Jolla and at the Oceanside Museum of Art, came from images in Buenos Aires that utilized overlays of street art with existing public art. The exhibit “Equatorial Sea: Water and Light, A Study of Color,” which was at University of California San Diego earlier this year, utilized Bill’s photos from Tetiaroa, the Pacific atoll, and was a series of time exposures of the ocean and the sky after sunset. Bill’s upcoming show will be a series of photographic still lifes in which all of the objects photographed will be edible.

When he isn’t building up his art shows, Bill builds up biotechnology companies. As a venture capitalist with three chemistry degrees, Bill said, “My objective has always focused on patients and providing products that improve their quality of life and life expectancy. What’s most rewarding is to actually meet patients that have been helped by new technology.” In his free time, Bill enjoys cooking, gardening, and hanging out with his wife Marisa.